By David, on May 11th, 2010 We returned from our rainforest retreat last Thursday and, after a hectic bus ride back, picked up the keys to our new sea front pad on Copacabana, Rio.
I’ve had the weekend now to gather my thoughts on the last two months living in Lapa, and decided that, overall, the experience was fantastic. I learnt a lot about the real Rio, and not just the bits that tourists see. It’s not all beaches and favelas in Rio; clearly there is a third side. Whilst the wealthy live in Copacabana, Ipanema, Botafogo and Barra, and the poor live in the Cidade de Deus, Vila Canoas and Rocinha favelas (amongst 500 others!), there is this ex-glamorous yet dangerous semi-wealth living in Gloria, Lapa and Centro. Lapa and Gloria have a certain attraction to them. For a start they are easily accessible on the metro, and contain beautiful colonial architecture, great bars and a lot of life.
The vast majority of the time, Lapa was fine. We were able to walk up Rua da Lapa to our flat from Gloria with bags of shopping and get no hassle. Hence, i’ve felt a little bad deserting Lapa – like we are only serving to increase it’s problems. Gloria and Lapa are only bad because all the decent, friendly people have left. Clearly, somewhere along the lines, this place was safe and desirable, but then it turned bad. As is the case in Lapa, it is not always the act of a robbery which makes an area unsafe. Often it is simply feeling unsafe. Lapa, as we found, is just too full of undesirables and too run-down to feel safe. No-one wants to fear leaving their house after dark. No-one wants to have to hide your money in a sock tied to your scrotum in fear of robbery. No-one wants to be woken in their bed by gun shots in the night and dead bodies on their door in the morning. This is the Lapa life.
If it was England, I’d perhaps write to the council, the local paper or try to raise some local awareness of the plight of a nice yet rapidly degrading area – at least do something before abandoning it. Here however, its not my country, I don’t speak the language well, so I’m just running like everyone else. At least I can say I contributed to the Lapa economy for a few months (and gave some street kids a lip gloss and mobile phone)
And so it came to pass. Whilst deliberating all of the above in my mind, the final nail in the Lapa coffin arrived. At around 3am one weekday afternoon last week, a young lady, Amber, living with the Iko Poran guys in Santa Teresa, was walking under the arches in Lapa. She had a knife placed to her throat and was robbed in broad daylight. Amber had her DSLR camera in a bag on her back which they tore off. She was then punched in the stomach and left in the street. The Police are stationed (as always) less than 50m away yet no-one came to her aid. Another normal day in Lapa.
So. Sorry Lapa. Thanks for the experience but I don’t miss you at all. Rio Prefeitura. Rio Police. I beg of you. STOP THE BLATENT CRIME AND CLEARLY CORRUPT BLIND EYE TO LAPA AND SORT IT OUT.
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